How cellphones will be MRT, LRT tickets | ABS-CBN News

GistAyala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. bagged a contract for the LRT and MRT one-ticketing system; the starting idea is to use cellphones as the ticketing medium.

Response

I am high hopes about this. One-ticketing system for two rail tracks should have been a given ages and ages ago; this makes commuting easier and more streamlined. It removes the cost of producing a lot of the ticket-cards (though naturally those would still exist somehow). We are going to the future.

I doubt feasibility in some respects. I love our country and my fellow Filipinos, but using cellphones as the ticketing medium is double-edged. It’s convenient, yes, and definitely possible, given that the Philippines is the texting capital of some standard. But it’s also dangerous –snatching? hold-up? I don’t think the convenience of just flashing out your iPhone 5S would be worth the risk. But it’s what they do in so many other countries (SK, for example). Must be possible.

Next step should be the improvement of the trains and trail systems themselves. Or maybe that should have been the first step? Either way, the fact that rush hour in LRT can kill a person’s hopes shouldn’t be allowed to stand today. More carriages, more trains, more efficient city planning (…someone improve the bus system and the jeepneys please).